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Re: Making a connection: Sepulveda does goodwill

Originally Posted by fordfixer

Having a special needs child myself I have seen first hand how the word "retarded" can hurt, and I can see why some would want its use stopped. I also know that there are more pressing needs for some of these people. But we'll take any help that we can get.

ff

I understand what you and FLAsteel have said and am sensitve to it.
But the words retarded, idiot, etc. started out as valid medical terms. It wasn't until a derogatory meaning was attached and they began to be used in a mocking or mean-spirited fashion that they became "bad words".

Even if we assign another set of terms (e.g. "Special") - sooner or later insenstive people will use them in the same fashion and we will be looking for yet another set of terms.

Re: Making a connection: Sepulveda does goodwill

Originally Posted by MeetJoeGreene

Originally Posted by fordfixer

Having a special needs child myself I have seen first hand how the word "retarded" can hurt, and I can see why some would want its use stopped. I also know that there are more pressing needs for some of these people. But we'll take any help that we can get.

ff

I understand what you and FLAsteel have said and am sensitve to it.
But the words retarded, idiot, etc. started out as valid medical terms. It wasn't until a derogatory meaning was attached and they began to be used in a mocking or mean-spirited fashion that they became "bad words".

Even if we assign another set of terms (e.g. "Special") - sooner or later insenstive people will use them in the same fashion and we will be looking for yet another set of terms.

Re: Making a connection: Sepulveda does goodwill

Originally Posted by flippy

Originally Posted by MeetJoeGreene

Originally Posted by fordfixer

Having a special needs child myself I have seen first hand how the word "retarded" can hurt, and I can see why some would want its use stopped. I also know that there are more pressing needs for some of these people. But we'll take any help that we can get.

ff

I understand what you and FLAsteel have said and am sensitve to it.
But the words retarded, idiot, etc. started out as valid medical terms. It wasn't until a derogatory meaning was attached and they began to be used in a mocking or mean-spirited fashion that they became "bad words".

Even if we assign another set of terms (e.g. "Special") - sooner or later insenstive people will use them in the same fashion and we will be looking for yet another set of terms.

Re: Making a connection: Sepulveda does goodwill

To me, words just seem like words. And you can use the same words in a positive or negative way. So why does it matter what words you use?

Shouldn't your spirit/intent matter more?

Seems like telling people that a particular word is bad makes it worse in a way. So if someone uses the word it must have bad intent and then makes the person who's the brunt of the word feel worse.

And then what happens is new words become the secret word for the old word any way. So people who have a mental handicap(I'm not even sure what the right word is supposed to be so apologies if I got this wrong, I'm trying to be sensitive here), end up being called special instead of retarded. But everyone knows special = retarded. And then in 25 years, we'll learn it's not ok to call someone special because everyone will have figured out by then that it just means the same thing as retarded.

No matter what happens, we'll always have a descriptive word to describe someone that's different. People will always feel bad about being different. So the descriptor that makes them different will always be a word with a negative connotation eventually.

Can't we just learn to celebrate that we're different?

None of us are alike.

We're all unique and different.

That's great and wonderful.

I've heard lots of people just want to be just like everyone else.

But everyone else isn't like everyone else.

And that's what we collectively need to learn to deal with.

I love kids with mental handicaps.

I typically find I have more in common with them than I do other people anyway.

And I'm not sure why I can't use a word to describe their uniqueness.

If it makes you feel any better i have no problem at all letting you call me "Prok and beans".